Fewer Israeli physicians in the pipeline than in the developed worldAuthor: A Picture of the Nation 2014Graphs and ChartsDecember 30, 2014

Fewer Israeli physicians in the pipeline than in the developed world: While the number of physicians in Israel is high relative to the population – largely due to the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union of the 1990s – it has been declining steadily and approaching the OECD average.

The annual share of medical school graduates in the population provides a glimpse of the future. This number is considerably less than that in the U.S. and the OECD and has been in decline for more than a decade – in marked contrast to the steady increase in the OECD.

There have been efforts to reverse this negative trend with the opening of a new medical school in Safed and the easing of requirements for the attainment of a medical degree.